Speedway



SPEJEDWAY4 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March 19A, 1926 Illll ATTONEY.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 atto/uwe Patented Jan. 11, 1927.

UNITE@ STATES PATENT, ori-loiry ANTHONY AVERY, OF ROYAL OAK, MICHIGAN.

srEnnWAY.

Application filed March 19, 1925, Serial It is an object of theinvention to provide a Speedway having a special arrangement ofcontacts. and whereon vehicles are adapted to travel as soon as thecontacts on the speedway are energized, unless separate switches areprovided on ldie vehicles themselves.

Another object ot the invention to provide specially constructedvehiclesl having downwardly projecting members towards their front andrear ends which pass through annular slots in the Speedway and haverollers at their lower ends which bear against the under surface ot thespeer way. rlhese downwardly extending memlfiers also have anarrangement of contact rollers thereon through which contacts are madebetween ythe contact strips on the Speedway and a motor on each ofthevehicles.

V] ith these and other objects in view which willl become apparent asthe specification proceeds, the invention is herein-itl more inllydescribed with the aid ot the accompanying drawings and claimed.

Figure 1 shows a plan view ot' the speedway.

Figure 2 is a section on the line Il-II ot Figure 1.

Figure 3 illustrates the front elevation ot a vehicle the body of whichis not shown.

Figure 4 is a plan view ot Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a longitudinal section ot the vehicle, only the traine andspecial construction of which is shown.

Figure 6 is a detail.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the surface 1 of theSpeedway is generally supported by cross members 3, the outer and inneredges of which rest on side walls 4 and 5. Between these side walls andunder the cross membersbraces 6 .are arranged which extend from theouter 'and inner walls to the central support 7. Under the annular slotsS) in the ksurface of the Speedway other slots 8 are provided in thecrossfmembers 3. On the surface of the Speedway angle shaped contactstrips 11 are provided on the edges of, and in, the annularV slots 9. Toeach of these strips a lead 12 or 13 is attached, so that the strips onone side of the slots are connected to the positive wire and the stripson the other side of the No. 95,827.r and in Canada April 9, 1925.

slots to the negative wire. Moreover l prefer that the lower edges ofthe angle-shaped contact strips 11 should terminate slightly above thebottom of the surta/ce 1. The vehicles 14, which may be of any desiredappearance, are built on trames 15 onV which cross bars 16 and 17 aresecured to arry the motor 13, and the front memher 19 has the 'frontends of the spring scoured to it. The front wheels 21 have axles 22which are supported in hearingsy :t3 integral with which latter are lugspivotally mounted in the upper and lower cross members 25 and 26respectively. A radius rod 27 connects the rearwardly projectingportions 28 ot the bearings. The object oi the offset 29 in the axles 22is to vfacilitado turning.

The rear springs 30 connected at hoth ends to the frame 15 have bearings31 mounted thereon which support the rearaxle 32. @n the latter a wormwheel 33 kis .liXed which meshes with a worm 34 on shaft 35 which latteris rotated by the motor 18. rilhe shaft 35 is supported in proximity tothe worm 34 by a nearing 70 mounted cna rear cross member 71.

The brackets to which the iront ends ot the rear springs 30 areconnected also support the cross member 37 to which the downwardlyext-ending guide 38 is attached..

The guide 38 is threaded at its upper end to receive the nuts 39 and 40located above and below the cross member 37 from which latter the guideis insulated by the washers 41 and 41a and the annular distance piece42. The guide is hollow and is slotted on both sides for the shaft 43 topass therethrough. The annular bearing 44 around the guide and adaptedto move vertically thereon `vrhas bushings 45 therein to support theshaft 43. At each end ot the shaift a disc is mounted, one of which 46is made oi' metal or some conducting material and restson one of thestrips 11, and the other disc. 47 is made of insulating material andrests on the opposite strip 11. In the Ouide a pin 43 is located thelower end of wnicn isot larger diameter and rests on the top ot thesha'tt 43. Around the'pin is a helical spring 50 which extends from theplug 51 in the top of the guide to thev lower end 48a of the pin andholds the latter in contact with the shaft 43. In Ythe lower end of theguide is a T- shaped fitting 52 which supports the insulating roller 53mounted around the lower end ol the guide. This tilting also has ashat't i therethrough on which rollers 55 are rotatably mounted.Yl'fhese rollers are adapted to bear against the underside oit thespeedway, and are prel'erably so positioned as normally to be just clearot the said under-- side so as to allow he vehicle to lean sideways whentaking the curves. rlhe slots in the sides ot the guide allow the shaft41.3 to move eith-er vertically or at an angle to the guide for the samereason. rFhe arrangement ot the front guide 38 is exactly similar to therear guide 353.

It will be noted that whereas the contact disc 4G bears on the left handstrip l1 from the rea guide 38, the contact disc i6 on the 'lront guide38 is located on the right hand strip, se that one guide is connected tothe positive and the other to the negative lead.

{W'ires 56 and 57 are connected to the top of the plugs 5l in the upperends ot the guides 38 and 38 respectively and also the motor terminals.The object of this arrangement is so that the vehicles may run in eitherdirection on the Speedway.

Gbviously the distance is greater around the outer track than it isaround the inner one, this however can be compensated for in variousways. Either the speed of the motors may be varied or the ear on theinner track may be weighted so as to retard its progress.

From the foregoing it will be seen that l have devised a speedway fromwhich the young can obtain considerable amusement and at the same timelearn something regarding both mechanics and electricity.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. An article of the class described comprising a Speedway havingannular slots therein, and annular contact strips on said Speedway oneon each side of each ot said slots, in combination with vehicles adaptedto travel around .said Speedway, downwardly projecting guides from saidvehicles, discs revolvably mounted in said guides and adapted to rotateon said strips, and rollers so mounted on the underside ot said guidesas to be adapted to bear against the underside ot said Speedway.

2. An article of the class described comprising a speedway havingannular slots therein, and contact strips one on each side oit' each orsaid slots, in combination with vehicles adapted to travel around saidspeedway, a motor having terminals thereon on cach vehicle, do vnwardlyprojecting guides attached one behind the other on each vehicle on oneach vehicle, downwardly projecting guides attached one behind the otherto said vehicles, closure members in the upper ends et said guides,axles rotatably mounted through said guides, pins in said guides having`enlarged lower ends which rest on said ailles, springs around said pinscontacting the closed upper ends ol said guides and forcing the enlargedlower ends of said pins against said axles, a contact disc and aninsulating disc on each axle, said discs being so arranged that the twocontact discs on each vehicle bear against opposing strips, andconnections from said guides to said motor terminals.

t. An article as described in claim 1 wherein one of the discsrevolvably mounted on each of the guides on each vehicle is made ol'conducting material and the opposing discs are made of insulatingmaterial, and the discs are so arranged that the conducting disc is onone side of the vehicle on one guide and on the opposite side ot thevehicle on the other guide.

5. An article of the class described comprising a speedway havingannular slots therein, and contact members one on each side ot each ofsaid slots, in combination with vehicles adapted to travel around .saidSpeedway, a motor mounted on each vehicle, a kdrive shaft connected toeach motor and having a worm thereon, a worm wheel on each rear axlecooperating with its worm, otlset front axles, guides dependinglyattached from the front and rear of each vehicle, and contact discsrevolvably mounted on said guides adapted to rotate on saidA Strips asthe vehicles travel around said Speedway.

6. An article as described in claim 5 wherein axles on which the discsare mounted are adapted to move vertically in their guides and to beinclined at varying angles to their guides.

ANTHONY AVER-Y.

